Descripción de la Exposición
Since 2013, Box (a proposition for ten years) for Commonwealth and Council has been exhibited yearly with its contents—repurposed fragments, writings, drawings, paintings, and sculptural elements—as they accumulate, transform, and grow. Through the personalized exchange system initiated by this time-based sculpture, artist Patricia Fernández fosters a relationship with the space.
For its 8th anniversary, Fernández collaborated with Los Angeles Contemporary Archive (LACA) and Autonomous Oral History Group (AOHG) to document the box’s contents and record an oral history of the project. AOHG has produced two vinyl recordings: one contains an interview with Commonwealth and Council (led by LACA’s Director, Hailey Loman) covering the project’s origins and ongoing relationship with the space; the other memorializes Box (a proposition for ten years) through Fernández’s reflections on eight years of correspondence and object sharing, offering insight into the box’s own archive, the ephemera that comprise and reveal an interpersonal relationship, and the underlying logic binding archivist and artist.
As in previous years, viewers are invited to peruse the letters, drawings, and other objects collected in the box, including elements added over the past year. Additionally, they can listen to its oral histories on a record player framed with hand-carved walnut wood, similar to the box’s other elements, and incised with the signature x-motif shared across the artist’s and her grandfather’s practices. Three banners serve as a finding aid, collating information on the archive’s contents and organization to help visitors navigate the materials. Viewers are invited to remotely access an online database comprising the artist’s metadata, information about the box’s contents, and photo documentation. The box is a repository—archiving a relationship—with a space, with a friend—through an exchange of objects, unanswered letters, things left unspoken yet somehow made manifest.
Patricia Fernández (b. 1980, Burgos, Spain; lives and works in Los Angeles) received her MFA from the California Institute of the Arts in 2010 and BFA from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2002. Fernández has had solo exhibitions at Holiday Forever, Jackson Hole, WY (2020); Todd Madigan Gallery, California State University, Bakersfield (2018); Los Angeles Contemporary Archive (2015); Centro de Arte Caja de Burgos, Spain (2015); 18th Street Arts Center, Santa Monica (2014); and LA>
Exposición. 07 ene de 2021 - 13 feb de 2021 / Commonwealth & Council / Los Angeles, California, Estados Unidos
Exposición. 19 nov de 2024 - 02 mar de 2025 / Museo Nacional del Prado / Madrid, España
Formación. 23 nov de 2024 - 29 nov de 2024 / Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (MNCARS) / Madrid, España